# MiniMax Speech-to-Text vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text (slim)

> Speechmatics Speech-to-Text scores 67.8 (B) to MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md (~4,950 tokens) · this version ~2,630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Speechmatics Speech-to-Text scores 67.8 (B) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech-to-text.

- MiniMax Speech-to-Text: D 48.4, rank #1114 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-stt.min.md
- Speechmatics Speech-to-Text: B 67.8, rank #305 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/speechmatics-stt.min.md
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text, good for Cheap file transcription with diarisation and subtitles, strongest on Chinese and code-switched audio by the vendor's account. Also No incidents deducted, where Speechmatics Speech-to-Text loses 3 points for them.
- Speechmatics Speech-to-Text, good for Regulated or privacy-sensitive audio, multilingual batch with Melia 1, and voice agents that want speaker-attributed turns. Ahead on Reliability, 70 against 47; Schema & documentation, 90 against 82; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 70; Security & auth, 65 against 33; Payments & pricing, 40 against 20; Maintenance & community, 70 against 6; Transparency & trust, 76 against 63. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.

| Category | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 47 | 70 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 82 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 70 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 33 | 65 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 6 | 70 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 76 |

| Fact (where they differ) | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | MiniMax | Speechmatics |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2` |
| Price for speech-to-text | not published | $0.0025 per minute of audio |
| Licence | none | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-05-27 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 20 stars, 58k npm/wk, 48k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +64: MiniMax Speech-to-Text 6 (Read as a model. No dated release or change of `asr-1.0` was found on the model or API release notes or the status page (0). No dated ASR entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email and Discord, not tested (6 of 15). No official SDK, and the MCP servers have no transcription tool (0 of 15). No package to judge (0 of 10). Total 6.); Speechmatics Speech-to-Text 70 (Model reading of the checklist, deprecation notice and support in place of release counts and issue replies. Changelog entries on 29 October 2026 for Batch SaaS and Agent STT, and speechmatics-rt 1.2.2 tagged on 26 October (30). Far more than three dated entries since 3 August, nine in October on the changelog's first page alone (10 of 10). No deprecation policy, and `operating_point`, the `region` field and the Voice SDK are marked deprecated with no removal date (0 of 10). A public changelog, a support portal with chat and email, and a community channel (10 of 15). SDK issues and reply times couldn't be read (0 of 10). Python packages speechmatics-batch 1.1.0 and speechmatics-rt 1.2.2, and JavaScript batch-client and real-time-client, current (15). A test workflow in the Python SDK, results not seen (5 of 10).)
- Security & auth, Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +32: MiniMax Speech-to-Text 33 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain API keys from the console with no scopes found, and the docs say publicly leaked keys may be disabled, as on minimax-voice-cloning (20 of 30). The terms (effective 30 March 2026), as read for minimax-voice-cloning on 4 November, let MiniMax use input and generated content to operate, maintain, develop and improve its services, with no opt-out found, and the privacy policy rules out only training to profile or target consumers (5 of 20). No retention period for uploaded audio or transcripts was found (3 of 15). Each response carries a trace ID, with no audit log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found, as on the other MiniMax listings (0 of 20). Total 33.); Speechmatics Speech-to-Text 65 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of least-privilege and injection lines. API keys as bearer tokens, with a separate management token for key administration (20). Browser and realtime clients pass temporary keys as `?jwt=` on the WebSocket URL, with a lifetime the caller sets from 60 to 86,400 seconds, so we deduct half (minus 5). Training is opt-in only, and opting in buys a 33 per cent discount (20). Realtime audio isn't stored, batch data is deleted after 7 days or on request (15). A usage reporting service exists, but we found no per-request audit log (10). ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type II with a SafeBase trust centre. No security.txt (404 on 1 November), disclosure policy, bug bounty or public advisories found (5).)
- Reliability, Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +23: MiniMax Speech-to-Text 47 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.minimax.io with component history, but its components are LLM, Text-to-Speech and Video Generation, with none for speech to text (10 of 20). With no component, the history holds no record for transcription (5). Limits published with numbers, 2 concurrent connections and 30,000 audio seconds a minute (15). 429 is documented as `rate_limit_error`, and the general error code page says to retry later, with no backoff figures or Retry-After (7 of 15). No SLA in the terms or docs (0). `asr-1.0` is called the current public model with no beta label (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 47.); Speechmatics Speech-to-Text 70 (Statuspage at status.speechmatics.com with components per region and history (20). Since 3 August, minor incidents only, each touching one region, one mode or a subset of requests. Batch AU slower for 2 hours on 10 August, a subset of Batch EU1, US1 and US2 jobs failing or slow for 56 minutes on 19 August, Realtime 4003 errors in the EU and US for 37 minutes on 4 September, and TLS errors for a subset of US Realtime sessions for about 2 hours on 10 September. The rest were scheduled database maintenance, a portal maintenance and a billing credit error, and nothing was posted after 10 September (20). Limits published with numbers, 10 new batch jobs and 50 status calls a second, 20,000 concurrent jobs, and 2 or 50 realtime sessions by plan (15). Both batch limits return 429 with a reason, but the docs only suggest notifications instead of polling and give no backoff or Retry-After (5). No SLA found for self-serve plans (0). Batch, Realtime and Agent STT on `/v2/agent` are GA (10).)
- Payments & pricing, Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +20: MiniMax Speech-to-Text 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $0.38 an hour published without a login (20). Speech to text is for paid accounts only (0). A person signs up in a browser and funds a balance (0). Total 20.); Speechmatics Speech-to-Text 40 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-hour prices for every model published without a login, with credits at $1 each before discounts (20). $100 credit with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).)
- Transparency & trust, Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +13: MiniMax Speech-to-Text 63 (Closed API with clear terms under Singapore law naming Nanonoble Pte. Ltd., as on the other MiniMax listings (15 of 30). The terms and privacy policy agree that inputs may be used to improve services and that data sits in a United States data centre, with no retention period for audio (8 of 30). No deprecation notice or policy touches the ASR API (10 of 20, for the dated notices elsewhere on the API release notes). Data location stated as the United States and an EU representative named, with third parties only by category (10 of 20). Total 43.); Speechmatics Speech-to-Text 76 (Closed service with clear terms and MIT SDKs (15). The pricing page, limits pages and security page agree on opt-in training, 7-day batch retention and no storage for realtime (25). The changelog announces behaviour changes in advance, such as the 23 September 2026 switch to waiting polls, but we found no deprecation policy (10). EU1, US1 and AU1 regions documented per endpoint and the service named as Azure-hosted, but no sub-processor list was found (15).)
- Agent ergonomics, Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +10: MiniMax Speech-to-Text 70 (API reading of the checklist. The default `json` returns only text, duration and a trace ID, with segments and subtitles opt-in (22 of 25). No lists to page. `response_format` and `language` are the output controls (12 of 20). Typed error envelopes with the real HTTP status, an error type and `request_id`, and 402 for an empty balance (18 of 20). Calls are synchronous with no idempotency key (10 of 20). Two fields, a model and a file. No official SDK, and MiniMax's MCP servers don't cover transcription (8 of 15). Total 70.); Speechmatics Speech-to-Text 80 (API reading of the checklist. Transcripts can be fetched as `txt`, `json-v2` or `srt` (20). The jobs list pages by creation date and limit (20). Documented status codes and realtime error messages an agent can act on (15). No idempotency key on job creation (10). A batch job needs a file and a language. Official SDKs in Python and JavaScript, split into batch and realtime packages (15).)

| Task | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.38 | $0.12 to $0.40 |